GEDDES AGAINST HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE

General [1] On 23 September 2014, at the High Court in Edinburgh, the appellant pled guilty, under the accelerated procedure provided in section 76 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, to a charge which libelled that:

“on 16 May 2014 on … [the] A941 Craigellachie to Rothes Road … you … did cause the death of Graeme Ross McKenzie … by driving a … car … dangerously and … having consumed an excessive amount of alcohol, overtake when it was unsafe to do so, drive close to a preceding vehicle and drive at excessive speed for the road conditions whereby you lost control of the [car] whereby it left the road causing … Graeme Ross McKenzie to sustain injuries from which he died there and then: CONTRARY to the Road Traffic Act 1988, Section 1.”

On 18 December 2014, the appellant was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment, that period having been reduced by 2 years to reflect the early plea. He was disqualified from driving for 12 years and ordered to sit the extended driving test.

Circumstances [2] The appellant was aged 37 at the material time. He was an offshore driller and lived in Aberlour. He was driving his Audi S3 Quattro. This has a 2 litre engine, producing 265 bhp. The deceased, who was aged 38, was his friend and the passenger in the car. The locus was the A941 Aberlour to Rothes Road near Craigellachie.

[5] On 22 April 2014 the appellant had been convicted of speeding at 93mph in a 60mph zone in March 2014. He was fined £350 and had 5 penalty points endorsed on his licence. This conviction was less than a month before the offence. He had also been ordered to find caution of £500 in respect of a breach of the peace in 2003.